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2 Mushroom cloud over US-India
nuclear talks By Sudha
Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Even as the
tortuous process of operationalizing India-US
civilian nuclear cooperation entered a critical
phase last week with the two sides beginning
negotiations on the details of the bilateral
agreement, a new bump has emerged on the road to
finalizing the deal.
The alleged use of
subterfuge by Indian government officials and
entities to bring sensitive US missile and
navigation technology to India is expected to put
the nuclear agreement under greater
congressional scrutiny in
Washington.
Four Indian nationals - the
chief executive officer of Cirrus Inc, an
electronics firm operating in South Carolina,
Singapore and Bangalore, and three other employees
- were indicted by a US court this week on charges
of exporting sensitive technology to India in
violation of US laws, the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control
Act.
According to the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), the items exported include
special heat-resistant computer chips with
applications in missile-guidance systems,
capacitors, semiconductors, rectifiers, resistors
and microprocessors for use in aircraft navigation
systems.
Cirrus apparently exported the
dual-use items from the US through Singapore to
three Indian government entities - the Vikram
Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), Bharat Dynamics Ltd
(BDL), and the Aeronautical Development
Establishment (ADE).
What is embarrassing
to Delhi is that the entities for which the US
laws were allegedly flouted are government ones.
ADE, for instance, is an organization set up under
India's Ministry of Defense, while the VSSC comes
under the Department of Space. What is more, the
FBI has named two Indian government officials as
"co-conspirators"; one of them, it claims, is an
official posted at the Indian Embassy in the
United States and the other an official of ADE.
India has said it will investigate the
allegations.
B N Sureesh, director of the
VSSC, has denied that his organization used
subterfuge to secure the high-tech items. The VSSC
always provides an end-user certificate whenever
it imports items, he told Times of India. "So
there is no question of us trying to obtain items
by stating one purpose and quietly using it for
another.''
The allegations and the
indictments couldn't have come at a worse time for
India.
Last week, Indian and US officials
began negotiating details of the 123 Agreement
("123" refers to Section 123 of the US Atomic
Energy Act of 1954). The 123 Agreement is the
bilateral pact that will define the legal and
administrative nature of civilian nuclear
cooperation between India and the US. At a time
when the agreement is in the process of
negotiation, India would not want to be seen to be
irresponsible.
Negotiations on the 123
Agreement are crucial for India. The Henry Hyde
Act, which was passed last December by the US
Congress, removing legal obstacles to US nuclear
trade with India, has provisions that are of
concern to New Delhi. India believes that the act
"significantly deviates" from the India-US
understanding of July 18, 2005, and the separation
plan of March 2006.
Under the July 2005
agreement, the US agreed to "full nuclear
cooperation" with India in return for the South
Asian country placing its civilian nuclear
reactors under international safeguards, but the
cooperation envisaged under the Henry Hyde Act
(named for the former Republican chairman of the
House of Representatives International Relations
Committee) excludes the sale of equipment related
to uranium enrichment, spent-fuel reprocessing,
and heavy-water production to India.
There
are important differences between the two
countries. India is concerned that the US wants to
include a condition in the 123 Agreement that
entails termination of nuclear cooperation - Delhi
will be required to return all nuclear equipment
and fuel given to it by Washington - if it
conducts a nuclear-weapon test, which is
unacceptable to India. India wants a clear
commitment of assured fuel supplies by the US to
its reactors.
Another issue of concern for
India regards reprocessing of spent fuel. India
wants its rights over this to be clearly written
into the 123 Agreement.
According to media
reports, in January India sought clarification
from the US on provisions in the Henry Hyde Act
that run counter to the letter and spirit of the
July 2005 agreement. It followed this up in
February with its draft of the 123 Agreement. The
Americans were not happy with the draft.
At the two-day talks in New Delhi last
week, the two sides said they had narrowed the
scope of some of their disagreements. But the
talks seem to have not met expectations on both
sides.
"We were hopeful that we would be
able to make progress to close out all of the
issues on the 123 [Agreement] talks. Some
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